Minor aims to triple sales with M&A drive
Brand expansion to fill Thai market demand
Minor Corporation Plc, a distributor of fashion and lifestyle brands, is adopting a mergers and acquisitions (M&A) strategy in a bid to triple its sales to 10 billion baht by 2021.
Chak Charlermchai, vice-president for new business development and real estate, said Minor is negotiating to acquire at least 10 Thai lifestyle product brands, ranging from bags to sporting goods.
The size of each potential brand is valued at 1-3 billion baht in annual sales. The company expects to conclude some deals by the end of the year.
Minor Corporation, a subsidiary of food and hospitality company Minor International Plc, distributes 12 brands of international fashion, lifestyle and kitchenware products, including Esprit, Bossini, Gap, Charles & Keith and Banana Republic.
“Consumers’ purchasing power has not rebounded, so we can only grow sales by 10% per year from our existing brands,” Mr Chak said. “Therefore, if we rely more on an M&A strategy, this will help boost our sales over the next several years.”
Minor International has recently used the M&A strategy to grow its hotel and food businesses.
Apart from M&A, Minor Corporation will continue to add international lifestyle brands to its portfolio to boost sustainable growth. But each brand should have a business size no smaller than 300 million baht in annual sales.
“We no longer market products with annual sales lower than 300 million baht,” Mr Chak said. “We stopped distributing the Red Earth beauty brand last year.”
He said all fashion products under the company’s portfolio attract middle-income customers, so the company will strengthen its fashion portfolio with fast-fashion brands for the mass market.
Minor is now negotiating with some fastfashion brands from Italy and Germany to be their exclusive distributors for the Thai market. Those deals are expected to be concluded by year-end.
Minor is interested in marketing fastfashion products because the number of brands in the Thai market is still small, even as demand continues to grow annually.
Yesterday, the company officially introduced Etam, a French lingerie brand along the same lines as US-based Victoria’s Secret.
“We added Etam because the market for lingerie here is worth about 10 billion baht and there are only five major brands available, compared with fashion apparel, which is valued at 200 billion baht but has up to 300 brands in the market,” Mr Chak said.
Etam aims to rock the premium lingerie segment dominated by international brands.
Currently, there are 12 Etam shops-in-shops and stand-alone shops in Bangkok. The company expects to open eight more Etam shops this year, bringing the total to 20 by year-end.
Minor Corporation expects sales of Etam lingerie to reach 1 billion baht over the next three years.